January 2018

John Elway sent me to the Pro Bowl. Guess who is my favorite all-time NFL player. The Pro Bowl generally is a laid-back affair, past and future, played for most of its years at Aloha Stadium. It features special rules such as no blitzing, no zone defenses, no trick offensive formations. The 2018 Pro Bowl is today, Sunday, Jan. 28 at Orlando for the second year in the…

One of the world’s oldest gorillas died Thursday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Vila was the matriarch of five generations and served as a surrogate mother for several hand-raised western lowland gorillas, according to the zoo. She celebrated her 60th birthday in October, becoming the world’s second oldest gorilla. “Vila touched many people throughout her lifetime,” said Randy Rieches, curator of mammals at…

Amid a resurgence in U.S. traffic fatalities now taking roughly 100 lives a day, an advocacy group today issued a report card identifying states that do the most, and least, to improve highway safety. The ratings by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety credited six states — California, Oregon, Washington, Louisiana, Delaware and Rhode Island—with having the most protective road safety laws. The safety group…

The number of flu deaths reported in San Diego County reached a new high, while at the same time lab-confirmed cases went down again, the County Health and Human Services Agency announced today. A total of 142 flu deaths have been reported through Jan. 13, 2018, the highest ever since the County began tracking fatalities about 20 years ago. The previous deadliest flu season was…

What to do with the 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive waste at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station by Camp Pendleton remains an epic problem, pitting concerned citizens against Southern California Edison, the California Coastal Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). San Onofre’s seaside nuclear reactors were permanently shut down in 2013, following steam generator malfunction. Edison operates San Onofre while the Coastal Commission…

Brian Pollard with the Urban Collaborative Project, a San Diego nonprofit, walks around a southeastern San Diego community where he says new residents have made once primarily African-American areas more diverse. (Megan Wood, inewsource) By the numbers: San Diego County’s most diverse neighborhoods When two residents in the southeastern San Diego neighborhood of Encanto meet, there’s a 71 percent chance they’re of different racial and…

Somewhere over the Rainbow section of Interstate 15 Tuesday, Jan. 16, another nail in the political coffin of Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-50th Congressional District) went up in the form of a giant billboard reminding voters he is under criminal investigation. As several dozen Indivisible members and their endorsed candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar rallied, and passing motorists along Old Highway 395 honked vehicle horns in cacophonous support,…

Trading places? In the Donald Trump “shithole” world of Reps. Darrell Issa (R-49th Congressional District) and Duncan Hunter (R-50th Congressional District), or maybe “House of Cards” and “Scandal,” the talk Thursday of the two trading congressional districts might even be considered too low to go. Yet, reports circulated that a baseball trade gone politically bonkers might be in the works. Hunter goes into free agency…

In the end, for all his bravado, Rep, Darryl Issa (R-49th Congressional District) saw the handwriting on the wall, the constant presence of Indivisible 49 protestors outside his offices, the specter of Donald Trump and took the easy way out. Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, kiss Darryl Issa, goodbye. It was all over with a whimper Wednesday, Jan. 10, way in…